Whatâ€™s Hot, June 2006

Computer theft is more than just stolen hardwareâ€”it's a security risk for companies and their clients and often results in data compromise or misuse. Unwilling to accept that risk, Ned Rendell and Chris Powers of the CPA firm Mohler, Nixon & Williams purchased and installed Beachhead Solutions' Lost Data Destruction (LDD). Soon afterward, a company laptop was stolen from a locked car trunk. After the theft, LDD sent Rendell and Powers a receipt that detailed the destruction of the stolen laptop's data and provided the thief's unique IP address.

"Since purchasing LDD," says Rendell, "we no longer have to worry about data compromise or misuse. Not only does the product automatically encrypt sensitive data, but it eliminates data, too. LDD is a highly customizable security solution. For example, we can customize the product to lock down a computer after three invalid logon attempts. If a computer hasn't checked back into our network within a predefined number of days, LDD can automatically destroy data or lock down the PC."

LDD is transparent to all its users. "The product doesn't change users' habits because they never know it's there," says Powers. "LDD gives our clients comfort that data won't be compromised and provides us with a peace of mind." For pricing information, contact Beachhead Solutions.

Spam frustrates users and clutters their inboxes. But for Ilene Rosner of Boca Raton, Florida, spam is no longer a problem. She uses Symantec Brightmail Antispam and recommends it to anyone battling spam. "The product actually eliminates spam and is fully customizable," says Rosner. "For example, you can create blocked-sender lists and allowed-sender lists. You can even configure Brightmail to filter only what you wish, using custom settings that let you filter specific words." Rosner appreciates Brightmail's built-in reporting. "The product lets me group reports by the hour, day, week, or month, and I can set it up to automatically email reports."

Rosner also benefits from Brightmail's quarantine feature. "I set up the product to require users to contact me if they want to release quarantined messages, but you can configure the quarantine to let users release their own messages. I can also determine the quarantine's message and hard drive space. In addition, you can specify the number of days to hold quarantined messages." For pricing information, contact Symantec.

Brad Gates of St. Helena, California, needed an email information management solution. Not only did it take two staff members three days to recover an associate's mailbox, but meeting internal and external compliance requests was becoming difficult. After considering several products, Gates decided on Mimosa Systems' Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server. "With NearPoint, our mailboxes can be recovered in minutes, and in the event of a failure, there is virtually no data loss." NearPoint also gives mobile users instant access to their historical email directly through Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Web Access (OWA) using keyword searches.

Monitoring a Web site for attacks and intrusion attempts can be an overwhelming task. David Stoltz of Allentown, Pennsylvania, says, "Before purchasing Privacyware Threat-Sentry, I was digging through huge Web logs, looking for potential attacks, which became a daunting task. Although I was up-to-date with Windows updates and security patches, I was still plagued with uncertainty and concerned about the possibility of a successful attack."

ThreatSentry gives Stoltz a blanket of comfort. "It's an added layer of security which visually shows intrusion and exploit attempts as they happen, without my having to search through and decipher Web logs," he says. "Any vulnerability is immediately blocked, and notification can be sent via email, pager, or cell phone. ThreatSentry provides many options to thwart attempts at exploiting our Web site, including IP blocking and Microsoft IIS shut down. I can rest easy knowing ThreatSentry is watching over my Web server." Pricing for ThreatSentry starts at $399 per server. Contact Privacyware for more information.

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